Pick Top Stocks For 2019, Best Stocks For 2019

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Since going public in mid-2015, e-commerce platform developer Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) has nearly quintupled in value, for around a 60% annual compounded growth rate. Of course, predicting those kinds of returns is impossible, but Shopify’s business model represents a unique opportunity that hit the market at just the right time.

Yet Shopify isn’t the only business with compelling arguments in its favor. We asked three of our Motley Fool investors for growth stocks that they like that have the potential to post returns that would put Shopify’s own to shame.

Top 10 Canadian Stocks To Watch Right Now: DineEquity, Inc(DIN)

Dine Brands Global Inc (NYSE:DIN) owns or franchises more than 1,900 Applebee’s and nearly 1,800 International House of Pancakes (IHOP) restaurants throughout the country.

The full-service casual dining industry has come under pressure in recent years. More consumers are opting for quick-service restaurants, which typically offer lower prices, better food quality and shorter waits to support an on-the-go lifestyle.

Dine Brands Global saw its adjusted earnings per share decline by more than 30% in fiscal 2017, driven largely by a 5.3% decline in Applebee’s comparable same-restaurant sales.

This pressure ultimately caused the company to lower its dividend by 35% in February 2018 to free up cash for brand investments and support its stretched balance sheet.

Simply Safe Dividends had issued the company a Dividend Safety Score of 4 prior to the dividend cut announcement, signaling that the firm’s payout was potentially very unsafe.

While the new dividend amount appears to be more sustainable for now, the business remains under press. The stock’s new yield sits close to 3.6%, which isn’t very competitive with other income options given the payout’s weak growth potential going forward.

Top 10 Canadian Stocks To Watch Right Now: Google Inc.(GOOG)

Alphabet announced that it is fixing a latency issue that Google Home Max owners have been dealing with.

The tech giant announced that the smart home device will be receiving a performance update to ameliorate an audio latency issues by the end of the month, according to a report from The Next Web.

As things stand, when you play something through a speaker via Google Home Max’s 3.5mm port such as a record player, there’s a lag. This can be problematic when hooking up the device to a TV source, as the sound is sometimes out of sync with the picture.

Alphabet says the new update will fix this as it will reduce in-line delay from 550 to 39 milliseconds, which is a latency reduction of about 93%.

GOOGL stock gained 1.5% during regular trading hours but was flat after the bell, while GOOG shares gained 1.4% and fell 0.2% after hours.

Top 10 Canadian Stocks To Watch Right Now: Activision Blizzard, Inc(ATVI)

Activision Blizzard is well known for being a PC and console game company with games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. But I think the company is set up for long-term success because of its willingness to adapt to digital sales and early exploitation of esports. The company generated $7.02 billion in revenue last year and $2.21 per share in non-GAAP earnings in large part because of $5.43 billion of bookings from digital channels and we’re only now beginning to see the potential of esports.

DATA SOURCE: ATVI REVENUE (TTM) DATA BY YCHARTS.

What I want to highlight here is the power of esports in growing beyond the current gaming model. The Overwatch League is a model esports league with team owners like Robert Kraft (New England Patriots) and Stan Kroenke (Los Angeles Rams) and multi-million dollar advertising deals. If esports continues to grow and attract more viewers than NFL games, this could be a booming business long-term. Twitch TV has already agreed to a reported $90 million two-year deal to show Overwatch League on its streaming platform and advertising deals with HPand Intel are both reportedly worth $10 million-plus over a two-year period. The beauty of esports is that Overwatch League may be just the beginning. Activision Blizzard can replicate the success of one league with new games, effectively creating multiple sports leagues that it owns.

Between the organic growth in existing console, PC, and mobile platforms and the growth potential in esports, Activision Blizzard has a bright future for long-term investors.

Top 10 Canadian Stocks To Watch Right Now: Frontier Communications Corporation(FTR)

Frontier Communications Corp (NASDAQ:FTR) finally bit the bullet and completely suspended its dividend in February 2018. The company had a Dividend Safety Score of 1, signaling a very unsafe payout, from Simply Safe Dividends before its cut announcement was made.

Frontier has reported a net loss the last two fiscal years and is saddled with debt, in part due to its poor decision to acquire some of Verizon’s fiber assets in 2016 for $10 billion.

The firm’s weak financial position has made it very challenging for it to make the investments in its communications networks that are necessary to remain competitive.

When combined with Frontier’s large debt load, sizable dividend and ongoing customer losses, management’s decision to eliminate the payout isn’t a big surprise.

U.S. stocks seem to have shrugged off all uncertainties regarding nagging trade tensions between the United States and China. The one-and-a-half-month-long tech tantrums also have eased and rising rate worries have probably taken a backseat after weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data.

Best Low Price Stocks To Buy For 2019: Royal Gold Inc.(RGLD)

Pure gold mining operations tend to be all-or-nothing affairs: either the project produces gold and other precious metals, or it does not. I understand that this scenario appeals to many gold stocks investors; however, other people want a reasonable exposure level to the mining industry. For the latter, Royal Gold, Inc (USA) (NASDAQ:RGLD) fits the bill perfectly.

Royal Gold utilizes a streaming and royalty-based business model. Among several advantages, streaming allows RGLD to gain exposure to multiple asset-producing projects without incurring onerous risk. Furthermore, the company’s budgeting and planning are much more predictable and accurate since they’re only dealing with actual producers. Investors love it, which is why RGLD stock has weathered the storm better the most.

On a YTD basis, shares are up 6.4%, which by itself is nothing to write home about. However, with benchmark indices struggling to return to black ink, RGLD has contributed a comparatively impressive performance. Moreover, we can likely anticipate increased bullishness in the near future.

In recent weeks, the underlying gold market turned positive for the year. Given the domestic and geopolitical uncertainties facing the Trump administration, gold could rise simply due to risk-adverse sentiment.

If that’s the case, I’d keep a close eye on RGLD.

Best Low Price Stocks To Buy For 2019: Google Inc.(GOOG)

Thanks to the lift to big-tech stocks, Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) was up 3.5% in mid-day trading Wednesday to take the fight back to its 50-day moving average. This caps a multi-week rally off of its early March low. While the stock was caught up in the sympathy selling surrounding the Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) data privacy scandal, recent positive coverage in Barron’s has helped flip the script.

The company will next report results on April 23, after the close. Analysts are looking for earnings of $9.21-per-share on revenues of $30.3 billion. When the company last reported on Feb. 1, earnings of $9.70 missed estimates by 37 cents on a 24% rise in revenues.

Best Low Price Stocks To Buy For 2019: Live Nation Entertainment, Inc.(LYV)

This is the company that was formed by a merger of Live Nation, the concert venue and rock-star-promoting business that it is. So many musicians, today, of course, make most of their money on tours, since the sale of CDs, you might have noticed, has dropped off a cliff in recent years. Live Nation, then, bought a merger with Ticketmaster, so this is the company that sells you the tickets to come into its venues to watch the entertainment that it’s promoting. It’s a tremendously powerful model.

I don’t see any real competition for this company and actually, thinking backwards through the five stocks for April The Giraffe, think about the companies and how little competition or how dominant they are within their industries. Whether you’re Axon Enterprise, I really can’t think of an alternative to Taser or police body cams. There are some small competitors out there, but there’s no Pepsi that I see to Axon’s Coca-Cola, and I would say the same thing for ResMed. I would say the same thing for Intuitive Surgical. Sure, for PAC, our Mexican airport operators and for Live Nation. So, you’re starting to look and see into the secrets of how I think about picking stocks and which businesses you and I want to own for years.

Live Nation is a market beater over the last year. At this time last year, it was at $31.50 as we did the show. Today it’s at $38.50. It’s up 22%. I will never sneeze at that. That’s good. I’ll take that annualized every year if I could get it against the market’s 15% because it’s been a good year for the market. That’s a +7%.

I’m warming up my five next stocks to pick on this week’s podcast, but before we do… You thought I was going to do an ad read. Nope, I’m going to do stats. I’m going to give you the numbers that we just covered.

Best Low Price Stocks To Buy For 2019: Match Group, Inc.(MTCH)

We’re down to the M’s. Match Group (NASDAQ:MTCH). Match.com. A lot of older people my age in our 50’s or so, we grew up with that over the last 10 or 20 years. To me that’s almost like the LinkedIn, but for dating. That’s kind of the more corporate, professional world site, but many other people know and use Tinder, which is maybe for a younger generation. I’m sure it’s used by people of all ages. Never by me, as a happily married man.

If you’ve ever heard of Tinder or you like Tinder, guess what? You could be a shareowner in the company that owns Tinder, and beyond just Match.com and Tinder, Match Group has 30 to 40 other sites appealing to many different types of people helping them find other people that they might fall in love with. Maybe get married one day. This is something that sounded bizarre 25 years ago and yet, meeting other people online and forming long-term relationships is increasingly in the top three of how we, as humans, interact with each other. Match Group is the out-and-out leader. Love the company.

Best Low Price Stocks To Buy For 2019: Walt Disney Company (DIS)

When it comes to the entertainment industry, no company has a more impressive legacy than Disney. The business has been in operation for 95 years, and public since 1957. Its stock has delivered stellar returns across that latter stretch, though its share price is down roughly 5% over the last several years. Cord-cutting is casting a cloud over Disney’s media networks segment — a division that accounted for roughly 41% of sales and 30% of operating income last quarter.

These challenges have contributed to the recent stagnation and shares trading at just 14 times this year’s earnings — a valuation that looks attractive in the context of the company’s strengths and historical resilience. Disney’s parks and resorts segment has been helping to offset the networks issues, and the company is making adaptations to meet the shifting media climate — recently unveiling its ESPN Plus streaming platform and readying its own film and television streaming service.

Consider that Mickey Mouse’s animation debut in the classic Steamboat Willy cartoon occurred almost 90 years ago. Today, the character is still one of the world’s most valuable entertainment properties and generates billions in annual retail sales. Disney has an unparalleled collection of entertainment properties, and it’s set to make that advantage even more pronounced by acquiring Twenty-First Century Fox’s film and character licenses. That should help the company continue to win at the box office, drive traffic at its parks and resorts, and compete in the streaming space.

Disney’s dividend adds to its value as a long-term investment. The stock comes with a 1.7% yield, and with a payout ratio of just 24%, there’s a good chance the House of Mouse will continue to deliver payout growth. For investors willing to weather some uncertainty as the company deals with some media networks turbulence, I think Disney is a stock that’s worth owning on a 50-year timeline.

Let’s call a spade a spade. Turnaround stocks are fun. They’re even more fun when you’re able to say you bought them at — or at least near — their low because you understood the underlying story better than most other investors did.

While we’re being completely honest with ourselves though, let’s also admit that “buying on the dip” can often leave us battered, bruised and burned.

But slow and steady wins the race. Stocks that never really waver from their upward march can look and feel relatively expensive, making them tough to step into from both a fundamental and a technical perspective. There’s a reason these names are able to do what they do though. And investors should be willing to pay for quality and consistency.

With that as the backdrop, here’s the market’s top stocks to buy. These stocks are not likely to dish out triple-digit gains in a matter of days or even months. But they are comfortably seated in long-term uptrends.

Best Gold Stocks To Buy For 2019: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation(CY)

Cypress Semiconductor is a leader provider of high-performance digital and mixed-signal integrated circuits. Just last year, the company shelled out $550 million to acquire Broadcom’s Wireless Internet of Things business and now its “WICED” Platform is one of the largest IoT portfolios in the industry.

Cypress is sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Its P/E of 13.0 and PEG of 0.8 are currently trading at noticeable discounts to their respective industry averages. Meanwhile, the company is expected to post earnings growth of more than 40% in 2018. Income investors will also note that Cypress offers a 2.7% dividend right now.

Best Gold Stocks To Buy For 2019: Royal Dutch Shell PLC(RDS.A)

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (ADR) (NYSE:RDS.A, NYSE:RDS.B) is one of the biggest players in the global energy markets.

With a $262 billion market cap, the only Big Oil that’s bigger is Exxon Mobil Corporation(NYSE:XOM). It’s what is called an integrated energy company because it has operations from the fields to the pipelines to the refineries to the distribution.

As with all energy firms, when times are bad, the more exposure you have to the entire production and distribution process, the tougher things get. But at the size the big oils are, they have the money to wait out the bad patches.

And that’s just what RDS.A has done. Now it’s time to cash in. What’s more, RDS.A is still delivering a mouth-watering 6% dividend … but that may wane as the stock price starts rising.

Best Gold Stocks To Buy For 2019: Google Inc.(GOOG)

It might seem crazy to predict that shares of a $750 billion company could double from here. But I think Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) has the potential to do exactly that.

As the parent company of Google, Alphabet already boasts seven products that each have at least one billion active users, including Search, YouTube, Gmail, Android, Chrome, Maps, and the Google Play store. But it’s easy to forget that around 4.5 billion people — two-thirds of the world’s population — still don’t have access to the internet. And the network effect surrounding the already enormous scale of Alphabet’s core product portfolio will mean it’s well positioned to benefit when those people come online.

That’s also not to mention Alphabet’s smaller "Other Bets" segment, which is mostly made up of early stage businesses with massive long-term promise. Think Nest connected-home products, Fiber high-speed internet, Verily Life Sciences solutions, and Waymo self-driving vehicles, to name only a few.

Revenue at Other Bets jumped nearly 50% last year to $1.2 billion. But many of its smaller businesses are still in their pre-revenue stages, so the segment incurred a hefty operating loss of $3.4 billion over the same period. But with a growing cash hoard of nearly $103 billion on its balance sheet at the end of last year thanks to its massively profitable Google operations, Alphabet can afford to continue fostering these bets with a long-term mindset. If any one of them truly begins to take off in the coming years, it could stoke Alphabet’s returns that much more.